Along with Antigua and Lake Atitlan, most visitors to Guatemala will include the famous Chichicastenango market to their itinerary, and with good reason. The Go Beyond series looks beyond this bustling market to reveal one of Guatemala’s most charming towns. Read on for what you might miss if you only visit the market.
Two shiny new Ford transporter vans stop along the side of a white cement road and nearly 30 passengers pile out and reformulate into the small groups everyone came with. Dani and I stand off to the side and observe with some shock the other tourists in the group. A group of Brazilians (both female and male) in tank-tops, short-shorts and movie-star sunglasses and several girls in short-ish skirts. Before you start thinking Dani and I to be very prude (standing there in our long pants, closed toe shoes and jackets), we should explain that our tour was taking place in traditional Mayan villages outside of San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico. The agency had mentioned that we should wear appropriate clothes out of respect to the villagers – advice apparently very few of us chose to heed.
On a stroll through Casco Viejo you will see Panama’s colonial past on every corner: French and Spanish architecture, narrow brick lanes, tree-filled plazas and beautiful churches. Let us take you on a photographic tour of Casco Viejo!
There is no feeling like arriving in the Caribbean – that humid air, the white sand, that easygoing feeling…but is a trip to the Corn Islands of Nicaragua worth a visit?
During this eight-month leg of our trip through Central America, we crossed paths with countless travelers coming up north as we headed down south, and listened to their tips and advice for places we had yet to visit. The only place that nobody could tell us much about was Honduras. It seems many people wonder whether it is safe or not to go there – here is our take.
The cooking course in Leon was not exactly what we expected, but turned out to be an unforgettable glimpse into Nicaraguan life. We wouldn’t have had it any other way. (No Indians, young or old, were harmed in the making of this meal).
Leon quickly became our favorite place in Nicaragua. Don’t take this to mean that Leon is some sort of paradise. On the contrary, the city is far from perfect. Read on for why rolling with the punches made us want to suck up as much of the culture the city had to offer.
With the sounds of surfer talk like ‘gnarly’ and ‘dude’ ringing in our ears, the morning sun could have easily been shining over Santa Monica or Venice, California, but we were actually seated at a restaurant thousands of miles south on the Pacific coast in small beach town called San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua.
Samara Beach is a hidden gem in the Nicoya Peninsula. It’s not completely overrun by tourists yet – and that’s why we say: Please don’t g to Samara Beach. We want to keep it to ourselves!
Montezuma is easily one of Costa Rica’s most beautiful beaches, but my love affair effectively ended after spending three days there in February 2011. The Damn the Man attitude has been cast aside by the hippies who grew up, got jobs, and put Montezuma on the tourist map.